WASHINGTON – Ignoring a veto threat from President Bush, who says he wants to sharply limit government subsidies to farmers at a time of near-record commodity prices and soaring global demand for grain, the House on Wednesday approved a five-year, $307 billion farm bill with a solid bipartisan majority.

The House voted 318-106 – well above the two-thirds needed to hand Bush the second veto override of his presidency – with 100 Republicans joining the Democratic majority in favor.

The Senate was expected to follow suit with wide bipartisan support today, sending Bush a bill that he described this week as bloated and expensive and said “resorts to a variety of gimmicks.”

The bill includes a $10.3 billion increase in spending on nutrition programs, including food stamps, that supporters called “historic,” as well as increases for land conservation programs.

Although the legislation is universally known as the farm bill, it actually directs far more money to feeding the poor than it does to helping farmers – about $209 billion for nutrition programs like food stamps, according to the Congressional Budget Office, compared with $35 billion for agricultural commodity programs.

It also extends federal subsidies that the president and other critics say are difficult to justify in such flush times for agriculture producers.

While Bush has long called for curtailing subsidy programs, the farm bill is viewed as vital legislation across rural America and in impoverished urban centers.

The willingness of a majority of House Republicans to break with the White House reflected both the strong support for the bill and a growing alarm among many lawmakers about their election prospects in November.

Bush made a similar political calculation in 2002, ultimately deciding to sign the farm bill that year even though he had strongly opposed it. A senior official at the time said the White House had concluded it would be “political suicide” in the midterm elections to veto the bill that year.

This year, Bush seems intent on refusing to sign the bill. He has criticized it for months, and Wednesday he issued a forceful veto threat.

“Today’s farm economy is very strong, and that is something to celebrate,” he said. “It is also an appropriate time to better target subsidies and put forth real reform.” The bill, he said, “spends too much and fails to reform farm programs for the future.”

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